Ghana not worried about goal drought

Ghana boss Maxwell Konadu only cares about advancing in the Chan, and not about a low goal count.

The gaffer insists that nobody remembers those who scored many goals but come second, and that progressing is more important than the statistics.

“I think we don’t plan to always come and score one goal but we plan our game according to the strength and weaknesses of our opponents,” Konadu told the FA’s official site.

Ghana have scored four goals in four games, and have conceded just once at the tournament. On Sunday, the Stars crawled into the semi-final via Kwabena Adusei’s strike from the spot got them a 1-0 win over DR Congo.

Nigeria and Libya have scored the most goals among the four teams that have made the semis, with Ghana only ahead of the equally frugal Zimbabwe.

But Ghana have been measly in defence as, with Zimbabwe, they have conceded just once in four matches.

“But just in case it happens that we score one goal and we are able to defend well, that for me is a plus to our team because we know the strengths and weaknesses of our team.”

“We don’t have to expose our boys to danger. We have to just protect our goal area as much as we can and if by doing so we end it up with one goal, that is okay that is football. It’s all about what you can do in the 90 minutes,” he said.

The coach also hailed his side’s tactical discipline that led to their edging out the maiden winners of the tournament on Sunday. “When we started this project, many people had little confidence in this team. And for me it is always better to come into a tournament as underdogs than to come with high expectations and just cannot progress,” Konadu told the Ghana FA website.

“In the previous edition, we had all the best players of the country then but we couldn’t even progress to the next stage but here we are we have a group of people who think they can fight till the last blast of the whistle.

“They have the belief in themselves, we gave them the confidence and we told them this is the platform for you. They came and they are doing it for us and for me, I’m very very impressed.”

Ghana play Nigeria on Wednesday in the pick of the semifinal games.